The way I understand it is that the idea of Record Sync is to replace the functionality of database views by creating relationships between tables which work like joins in views.
That being said, a big part of database views is joining transactional tables which store ref IDs with ref tables to get the display values. Would it be considered an anti-pattern to create a record type for a ref table and join that to the transactional record to display a ref id's display value, or is that under the intended functionality of Record Sync
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I think you can go either way with it. It's nice sometimes to only have finite set of possible strings, all known, for end users to pick from in certain cases. That said, certain reference tables might be unnecessary, like months of the year or states. I think you have the option to use lookup record or not use lookup record as you see fit, even on a case-by-case basis.